I cannot get an old movie out of my head – “Journey for Margaret” – introducing cry-on-demand child star Margaret O’Brien in a 1942 war movie, based on the real story of a war correspondent’s adoption of a little girl who survived the London Blitz. William L. White’s 1941 book had only one orphan being saved; the movie added a little boy. Most of the other details follow White’s version, except for the ending.

Of course, the ending is still a happy one, with both children coming to America to live a new life with a new family. But, in the movie, the fate of the little boy is tentative, until an old woman, who graciously gives up her luggage allotment for his passage, marks the universal theme – possessions are not as important as people.

Pass the tissues, please.